The China Spectrum - eating for $130 or eating for 1.3 cents

i thought these ming dynasty vase inspired dresses were cool. just kidding i dont know if these are ming dynasty vase inspired or not.

a cool lighter


i have to admit the cigarette packaging designs here are pretty cool. look at those cute little pandas. they grow up so fast then they start smoking packs of $1 cigarettes and going to parties and such


lots of people argue that made in china has the best peking duck. it is inside the Grand Hyatt hotel and might be the most expensive duck also. Later in this post you will see the cheapest possible food you can buy in the most ghetto part of china i've been in so far.

i think their design is just swell


we went to tiananmen square after eating duck

maybe they monitor everyone and have high tech direct beam microphones aimed at dubious people.


this guys job sucks so bad. but its either this or be a farmer. he has to stand there all day and have a-holes like me take pictures with him. i will put those up later.

my aunt uncle and cousin. they are white so they go some picture requests, it's only normal.

ok so a short bike ride away from our nice, safe, excessive expat townhouse compound is the most ghetto part of china i've been to so far. and this is not even that ghetto compared to rural china. we took a bike ride through one of the hutongs. i saw some little girls peeing on the ground in front of their doorway, which is like peeing in your living room basically. it smelled bad, and the air was filled with hepatitis and all that yummy stuff.

China is roughly the same size as the US geographically. unfortunately a lot of it looks kind of like america. vast expanses of crap. this looks like it could have been shot anywhere in america.


none of these pictures captures what its like to ride through one of these hutongs. this one is pretty good though. now that is super ghett. i wonder if they have internet access.

we bought these buns for that were 1.3 cents each. then she swindled us into paying 7 cents each, but felt so bad that just paid 7 cents. we could have bought the whole gigantic rake of fresh made baozi for $1. so sad.

.....and then bam! GOATS! and the farmer guy reading his text messages on his cell phone.
this is not a farming area. it is still Beijing. Bob said once that he thought he saw goats near the airport expressway. i said bob you're crazy, and he even doubted himself. Had bob really seen farm animals grazing in Beijing? i am sorry bob. take these goats and my apology.